(CNN) - It’s truly amazing to see the dramatic changes that occurred in North Africa and the Middle East this year. Gadhafi, bin Laden, al-Awlaki dead. Mubarak in jail. Other despots have fled or are on the verge of being removed from power. Bashar al-Assad brutally fighting for his survival in Syria.

Anyone who would have predicted these changes a year ago would have been dismissed as weird.FULL POST